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Tikeoustos
Tikeoustos, the Dominion of the Just * Just 50 years ago, the continent previously known in various tongues as the Manwilds had no centralized seat of power. The various city states and tribal territories traded, warred, feuded, explored, and lived in relative harmony - the equilibrium one might expect when the only law is that applied at bladetip. ** That changed when the man they now call Itan the Clearminded erected his Crystalline Keep seemingly overnight and set about unifying the many different groups under one banner and one law. ** Itan's conquest started with an abrupt and bloodless coup over several cities along the interior of the Manwilds who quickly acceded his demands and decrees. That conquest lurched into a halting, violent campaign as his laws were shunned by the regions closer to the seas. ** Many tribes and cities resisted his rule for nearly 20 decades in a gruesome affair of shifting alliances, guerrilla warfare, and desperate last stands. * The Night Itan Stole the Stars is regarded as the official beginning of his so-called Dominion of the Just. ** On a sweltering summer night, just before the annual Squalls - a two week period of rough seas and worse weather that all-but halts trade globally - the night sky changed completely. Many stars disappeared, others changed in brightness or color; some moved to entirely new places in the firmament; new ones yet scattered themselves across the firmament. No constellation stayed unchanged, and in the center of the western sky a new constellation appeared: Itan's Crown. ** Each of the more religious or superstitious tribes who had joined the resistance immediately clamored to accept their place in Itan's kingdom, to accept the Crystal Accords, and to find peace with a man who could wielded such power over their myths, their legends, their beliefs. ** Each of the holdout coastal cities and shipping companies of the Manwilds likewise accepted their fates. Each tip of Itan's Crown is bejeweled by stars that shift and swirl; how could any hope to sail in open defiance of a man who could render any star-chart or Sextant so useless? * One by one, Itan brought the peoples of the Manwilds under his rule. Despite the suggestion of their name, the Crystal Accords are a lengthy series of decrees by Itan instituting his principles of justice and precepts of law. ** Alongside the recognition of the Crystal Law and the authority of Justice's Senses, each city was renamed and its population accounted through census. ** Determined through a very complicated matrix of variables, some cities' peoples were shuffled across the continent to blend their cultures and traditions in the name of a new national unity. *** Many Senses were clearly appointed from the local populace to quell feelings of oppressive oversight, but many clearly possess an intelligence for logic or a knack for keen observation of people that makes them quite fair as judges. ** Only one city retained its name, as well all of its inhabitants. *** No one knows what Speaker-Queen Ostreyil discussed with Itan the Clearminded, but dozens of thousands of people crowded along the walls of Itan's Crystal Keep to watch the days-long negotiation though not a sound is audible from outside the Keep and something - fog, perhaps? a careful spell? - blocked just enough of their mouths to obfuscate any lipreading. *** The city of S'angalla retains its name, its walls, and its forces - though most of those defenses seem to be focused on the tiny isthmus to the west of its lands. ** In exchange for recognition of the Crystal Law and membership of the Crystal Accords, Itan granted each city a general degree of autonomy, subject only to incredibly low taxations and tithes and an obligation of conscription if they should ever be called upon. * Itan the Clearminded resides in the Crystal Keep, a flawlessly clear castle in the exact center of the Capital City of Clarity. ** From here, he metes out the tenets of the Crystal Law and spends the rest of his time poring over books, murals, rubbings, and all matter of obscure knowledge that arrive in Clarity at all hours of the day. *** The Crystal Keep is transparent from every angle, and he welcomes any to visit him to discuss anything but legal matters at any time of day. **** His gregarious and friendly nature, while apparently very genuine, is a cold contrast to the exacting lethality he issues against any who defy his decrees. So many Tikeoustians lost sight of his reputation for seeking only decisive and brutal victory during conversation with the charming leader and lost their lives for getting too brave in talking with him that very few avail themselves of the Right to an Audience anymore. *** His bedchambers and various other rooms are tucked into a spacious garden of topiary and hedges so that any who do not wish to observe his more private moments are not forced to do so - but any that would like to observe can freely enter the garden to see Itan the Clearminded sleeping, eating, bathing, or even shitting. * The Crystal Laws are upheld by a vast network of inquisitorial judges and investigators he calls his Senses. ** The Senses of Justice each have a specific territory or jurisdiction over which they command complete investigatory authority. Each Sense may be appealed to a higher Sense yet in a chain that leads directly to Itan himself. ** Each Law is highly specific, and the penalties or punishments for violation are subject to a vast and complex schedule of mitigating and aggravating factors. * The Manwilds were a land of great ethnic and natural diversity, with many tribes and city states interacting at arms length for hundreds of years. Since the rise of the Dominion, much of that diversity has been homogenized among the cities but it is still as rich and full of heritage as it was. ** Expect humans, elves, hobbits, lizardfolk, tabaxi, some goblinoids, and many more of those groups more commonly found in the wilds and woods. ** The City of S'angalla is a plateau city inhabited entirely by aarakocra.